What is it about?
Grandparents are important members of families, however their needs are often overlooked in practice and research. This study explored the impact one children's hospice had on grandparents through their bereaved roles in supporting other members of grandparents support group. The study involved the evaluation of all groups between 2015 and 2019.
Featured Image
Photo by John McMahon on Unsplash
Why is it important?
We know that grandparents play important roles in supporting other members of their families, and that their experience of grief is often overlooked by professionals and family member. Existing research has shown that grandparents have limited support available and often feel unable to express their grief and seek support from their networks. This research showed the perceived value of being able to meet with other bereaved grandparents, to be able to talk about their grief and to support others following the death of their grandchild.
Perspectives
Writing this research, and being able to champion the needs of bereaved grandparents was a pleasure. I had worked as part of the grandparents group alongside Jude (co-author), who is equally committed to ensuring meaningful support is available for grandparents who are bereaved. We made some significant changes to the group following the completion of my PhD exploring the how grandparents experience the death of a grandchild. It was great to be able to explore the impact of these changes in a robust way and to share our learning to enable other hospice services to benefit from the approach.
Dr Michael J Tatterton
University of Bradford
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: ‘I no longer feel alone’: meeting the needs of bereaved grandparents through a children's hospice support group, International Journal of Palliative Nursing, May 2022, Mark Allen Group,
DOI: 10.12968/ijpn.2022.28.5.193.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
